Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XXIV. Revolution
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
484
REVOLUTION [chap. xxiv.
the sympathy of the Swedish public for these unhappy
people.
In the outer hall I found myself by chance next to an
individual of the Armenian type ; I asked him in Russian
if he did belong to that nationality and on his answer in
the affirmative I got a place for him in one of the front
rows so that he should hear the lecture well.
Branting’s stirring speech and then the brilliant
account of the lecturer brought home to a much-moved
audience the awful scenes of massacres, tortures,
wholesale deportations—during which the greater number of
the deported died from privations—the whole thing
having been skilfully organised so as to extirpate once
for all the whole Armenian race, whose existence and
misfortunes were leading to the interference of Russia
and Western Europe in Turkey. I walked home from
this meeting and the Armenian whom I had befriended
accompanied me. Very naturally we discussed what we
had just been hearing. But my companion, without
dwelling much on the misfortunes of his
fellow-countrymen, passed rapidly on to general political questions and
ended by advocating in eloquent terms the necessity of
stopping all carnage as soon as possible and the present
war first of all ; he was impudent enough to draw up—
probably in order to tempt me—a picture of a Russian
diplomat who would throw off current conventions and
place the "true" interests of the Russian people above
the needs of the Allies! I stepped back a pace. " But
are you really Armenian ? And if you are, how can you
speak of peace so long as your unhappy country has not
been freed and avenged ? Who in the world are you ? "
The individual was beginning to reply that when the
ideals of those who thought as he did were realised,
there could no longer be any massacres, any national
persecutions. . . . But I quickly took off my hat to him
and fled as from some noisome beast. I heard a few
days later that he had left for Russia.
I also remember on one occasion, when I had gone
to the station to see some one off, noticing a group of
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
